Harry James Potter-Malfoy
by Lily Alice Potter
Summary: It's time for the truth to be revealed! Harry can't stand how things turned out so he goes in time to make sure his parents aren't split up. His twin and his husband come along for the ride. With the Marauders, Dumbledore, Lily, Lucius, and Severus be able to change the future for the better? (Peter not considered a Marauder)It's a little far fetched I know...*Shrugs*
1. Chapter 1

"Are you sure you're ready, Harry?" Hermione asked for what seemed like the thousandth time.

Harry resisted rolling his eyes, "Yes, Hermione. It's not supposed to be this way! Everything's screwed up and I'm going to fix it! Ron and Draco are coming with me for obvious reasons but you need to stay here with Viktor. If things work out as planned none of this will have happened and we may not be with the ones we love anymore."

Harry felt extremely guilty about this part of the plan. In order for everything to work he needed to go back in time. But by doing that he was jeopardizing everyone's happiness. "You need to spend every moment you have with your own children."

Hermione had tears in her eyes but she nodded. She wrapped her arms around the man before letting go and watching him walk off into the distance. Who knew if she'd ever see Harry James Potter again?

~oOo~

When Harry returned to Hogwarts he went straight to the Chamber of Secrets. That was where he was meeting with Ron and Draco. Dumbledore had given them the spell and wished them luck. He just hoped everything worked put all right.

"Took you long enough." Draco sneered without his usual malice.

Harry just grinned and shrugged, when he had learned the truth about him and the blonde menace it made a lot of sense. Now he just had to make sure he didn't screw anything up.

"Ready to go, Harry?" Ron said gently. He knew how hard this was on his best friend and husband.

Harry nodded taking a deep breath and taking Draco and Ron's hands. While he was chanting he felt the world melt away into darkness.

~oOo~

"Will James Potter, Lily Evens, Lucius Malfoy, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Severus Snape please report to the seventh floor corridor. Professor Dumbledore will meet you all there." McGonagall announced in her stern Scottish brogue.

James and Sirius glanced at each other, they hadn't done any pranks recently, especially on the Slytherin's. Remus just quietly and casually grabbed his things and headed out, he was closely followed by the other two Marauders, Lily, Lucius, and Severus.

When they finally made it to the seventh floor corridor Dumbledore wasn't alone. There was a man with raven hair and green eyes, but round spectacles made them hard to see, a blonde man who reminded the group of Lucius, and a tall red head with blue eyes.

They were surprised to see the man with green eyes holding the hand of the red head. Lily thought it was absolutely adorable while the boys blushed. James cleared his throat, "You wanted to see us Headmaster?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "Ah, yes of course. I need you all to be open minded for a moment and wait here."

They all raised their eyebrows in question but they didn't move while the man with green eyes walked past the wall in front of them three times. At first they thought he was barmy, until a door appeared.

When they all entered the room it was very cozy. It was all done in light blues and creams with couches and arm chairs everywhere. Sirius sat with Remus while Lily sat with Severus, leaving the only available space next to Lucius. James took the spot blushing slightly.

In the light they noticed that all of the strangers had scars everywhere. But the green-eyed man had the most, not to mention the fact that his eyes were extremely haunted.

"Excuse me, Headmaster?" Lily asked gently, "But what is going on here?"

The Headmaster just motioned for the green-eyed man to talk. "I needed you all here. You see, I'm from the future and everything is not how it should be."

Sirius' eyes narrowed, "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

The green eyed man grinned, "Sirius Orion Black, oldest son of Walburga and Orion Black. You're what? Sixteen now?" When he received a nod he continued, "So this past year you ran away from home, causing your mother to blast you off of the Black family tapestry. You ran to James Charlus Potter's home where his parents Dorea Potter nee Black and Charlus Potter took you in like another son."

The shocked look on the two boys faces were priceless so the man continued on, "You two and Remus John Lupin are also known as the Marauders with Peter Pettigrew." He shot an apologetic glance at Remus before continuing. "Remus is a werewolf which is why the tree of you decided to become animagi. James is a stang which is why his nick name is Prongs, Sirius is a grim which is why his nickname is Padfoot, and Peter is a rat which is why he is Worm tail. Remus' nickname is pretty self explanatory, Moony."

The three stared at the man in shock while Lily, Lucius, and Severus still looked unconvinced. This time the blonde man grinned.

"Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, only child of Abraxas Malfoy and Abril Malfoy nee Rosier. Not many people know that you've had a standing marriage contract with Narcissa Malfoy that only you can break. You're seventeen now and are about to make the biggest mistake of your life. The only other thing I can think of is that Abraxas is pushing very hard to get you to take the dark mark and you are actually thinking about it. It's also your worst fear to turn into your father and let your children down."

Lucius' jaw dropped at that and he blushed slightly. The red headed man took this as his que and he rounded on Lily, "You are Lily Lyra Evens, you are the youngest daughter to Rose Evens nee Smith and Ralph Evens. Your older sister Petunia has just married a rather obese muggle man named Vernon. She never invited you to the wedding as she sees you as 'a freak'. You know she's just jealous as you and Severus found a letter from Dumbledore to Petunia about how she couldn't come to Hogwarts as she had no magic."

It was time for Lily to turn bright red and look away and Severus flinched, as he knew what was coming. The green eyed man sighed when he looked at Severus, "Severus Tobias Snape, only son of Tobias Snape and Eileen Snape nee Prince." That received some gasps from the purebloods in the room. I won't say much because I won't tell anyone your secrets but you need to know that it's better to have someone by your side as you handle it all. I should know." He said with a sad smile as he lifted the red headed man's hand in his own.

"I grew up in a similar fashion and I am just now realizing that I didn't deserve any of it."

"Who are you?" Lucius asked carefully.

The man sighed and closed his eyes, "That's a difficult question to answer. Do you want my birth name, the person who I thought I was, or who I am now?"

"Why don't you work your way backward?" Lily suggested softly. She could tell that this was hard on the man and she'd do anything she could to ease his pain just a little bit.

"I am currently Harry James Weasley, husband to Ronald Bilius Weasley. Brother to Draco Malfoy-Zambini, Blaise Malfoy-Zambini, Ginny Weasley, Fred and George Weasley, Percy Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Bill Weasley, Fleur Weasley nee Delecour, Hermione Krum nee Granger, and Viktor Krum." He then focused solely on James.

"I knew myself to be Harry James Potter, son to Lily and James Potter." There were gasps at that and Lily and James looked disgusted. "I of course learned at the end of my seventh year at Hogwarts that this was not true."

The two teens looked relieved, "The who are you?" James asked, confused. "Because you look an awful lot like me."

Harry rolled his eyes, "That's because I was born Harry James Potter-Malfoy, son of James Potter-Malfoy and Lucius Potter-Malfoy, twin of Draco Lucius Potter-Malfoy."

Lucius blushed a bright red and looked down at his lap while James stared at the man with shock. "Then who are you?" Severus asked the blonde.

Draco rolled his eyes in a similar fashion to Harry, "That should be easy Severus. I used to be Draco Lucius Malfoy, son of Lucius Potter-Malfoy and James Potter-Malfoy, twin to Harry James Potter-Malfoy."

"The who are you now?" Lucius asked gently. He was meeting his future babies.

Draco's eyes softened, "I'm Draco Malfoy-Zambini, husband to Blaise Malfoy-Zambini, father to Adrian Charlus Malfoy-Potter, brother to Harry Weasley, Ron Weasley, and family."

"And I take it that you are Ron?" Remus asked with a smile on his face.

Ron grinned, "Right in one Remus. I'm Ronald Bilius Weasley, youngest son to Arthur and Molly Weasley, brother to Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Percy Weasley, Fred and George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, and Hermione Krum nee Granger, husband to Harry Potter-Malfoy-Weasley. Though he only goes by Weasley now."

"What's so bad in the future that you had to come to the past?" Lily asked reasonably.

Harry sighed and sat next to Ron on a free sofa. "Nothing is how it is supposed to be. You see shortly after Mum-"

"Lucius." Draco interrupted causing the darker haired twin to mock glare at his brother.

"Fine then, shortly after 'Lucius' gave birth to us he had to divorce Dad-fine! James. He never actually got rid of the marriage contract between himself and Narcissa Black. She got angry that he just left her for a man so she enacted the contract not two weeks after he had given birth. James was heart broken and Lucius put on a mask so he wouldn't get even more hurt. They split Draco and I up, the one who looked more like James went with him to be the Potter heir and the one that looked like Lucius went to be the Malfoy heir."

Draco picked up the story from there, "At the same time Remus and Sirius were married and living well near Godric's Hallow, as were Lily and Severus Snape. Severus began spying for the light as he got a place in the Dark Lord's inner circle. He felt it was too dangerous for him to be married to Lily so he divorced her without a single thought to what she may want. His mask also went into place. So James and Lily bought a house together and decided that it was financially to their benefit to marry. They became James and Lily Potter parents to Harry James Potter."

This part Ron knew well so he continued, "On October the thirty-first of the same year Voldemort went after a child of a prophecy. It was a prophecy that could have been one of three boys born at the end of July. Including Draco, Harry, and Neville Longbottom, son of Alice and Frank Longbottom."

"Alice and Frank! Oh how wonderful!"

"Our lives are ruined because of some imbecilic Slytherin's and you think that's wonderful?!" James asked, he wasn't angry just frustrated and confused.

"I'm actually trying not to think about it." She said with a firm glare in the teens direction.

Lucius on the other hand had gone incredibly pale, "What happened?"

Harry's face softened at his mother's worried tone. "Voldemort thought that Draco was not a threat as he was the son of two of his 'most loyal' followers. Neville was a pureblood so obviously he wasn't a threat but just in case he sent Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange to torture his family into insanity. Neville was forced to live with his grandmother Agusta Longbottom."

"What about you?" James asked softly.

"Because Voldemort is a half blood and he thought Lily Evens was my mother he came after me. He had a man who was best friends with Dad. Peter Pettigrew became a Death Eater during winter holidays his seventh year. He became the Potter's secret keeper because Sirius thought that if he was the secret keeper it would have been obvious. He was right. It was a brilliant plan…but they should have used Remus. On October 31, 1981 Voldemort barged into our home in Godric's Hallow and killed James Potter with no remorse. Lily grabbed me and ran up to the nursery where she barded the door."

Harry couldn't continue on so Ron wrapped his arms around his husband's shoulders and continued on for him. "Voldemort knew Severus loved Lily, he just never knew they were married so when he got into the nursery he offered her life. She refused and stood in front of the killing curse effectively saving Harry. By dying to save a child that was not even hers she evoked a strange kind of magic. When Voldemort cast the killing curse at Harry it rebounded. Voldemort died that night but he had created what are called horcruxes."

Lucius was wide eyed. His baby had survived the killing curse! And James! His Jamie…dead. He felt hallow.

James saw Lucius' expression and wrapped his arms around the blonde. "It's ok, Luc. He's ok. He's right in front of us…and so is Draco. They're both ok."

Harry felt his heart warm as he watched his parents interact together, he snuck a glance at Draco and smirked.

"When were you gonna tell us you were with the Ice Prince of Slytherin?" Sirius asked jokingly.

"When you told me you finally got your head out of your arse and asked Moony out." James responded cooly making Remus blush and Sirius splutter.

"So what happened next?" Lily asked, she'd get the whole story out of them if it was the last thing she did.

This time Draco sighed, "So Voldemort really wasn't dead. He became a spirit looking for a way to come back. Dumbledore, because he thought Harry was biologically Lily's son, sent Harry to live with Petunia and Vernon Dursley."

"No!" She exclaimed causing Lucius to look at her in shock.

"What in Merlin's name-?"

"My sister hates magic!" She rounded on Dumbledore, "You should know better! Why didn't you check his birth records? They must have clearly stated that Lucius was his mother!"

Dumbledore blushed and shrugged, "I am an old man, Ms. Evens. I do make mistakes every once in a while."

"Anyway, he grew up not knowing he was magic and thinking his parents were drunkards who died in a car crash."

"That's not true!"

"What's wrong with these muggles?"

"_Anyway_." Harry stressed, "When I finally got to Hogwarts Voldemort had latched on to our Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor and slowly was eating away at his soul. Dumbledore knew Voldemort would go after Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone so he locked it up in the third floor corridor."

"Long story short, this idiot," Draco said motioning to his brother. "Went after it with that idiot," he said pointing to Ron. "And Hermione. Ron got knocked out by a giant chess game, Hermione helped Harry get to the end but eventually went back to Ron and Harry went on by himself."

Everyone in the room seemed incredibly pale at that. "So I went into the room and Professor Quirrel was there trying to get the stone. It was revealed that he had Voldemort on the back of his head and he threatened me a lot actually." Harry mused. "Anyway, I got the stone and he came after me. But because Lily had sacrificed herself for me every time he tried to touch me he burned. So I held onto him until he was dust."

Ron rolled his eyes, "And what he is neglecting to tell you is that three days in a magical coma after."

"Is there anything else we need to know?" Lily asked, wearily. She saw how pale Lucius got as he clung to James.

"Just that I had a meet up with Voldemort every year except three and six. In third year it was revealed that my Godfather Sirius Black was a prisoner of Azkaban." He saw there was about to be a riot so he finished quickly. "He was innocent of course. Peter set him up. Remus was DADA Professor that year so he helped us save Sirius and try to have Pettigrew locked up. Of course it didn't work and Sirius was still on the run." Harry sighed.

"In our sixth year a lot happened actually. I was coerced by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore to save my Mum and Dad, actually Narcissa and Mother, but you know I didn't know that, because Mother had failed his mission the year before and was in Azkaban." Draco and Harry winced as Lucius groaned and buried his face in James' shoulder. "So I invited a bunch of Death Eaters into the school and went up to kill Dumbledore…but I couldn't do it. It wasn't until later we learned that Sev-"

"You know what? You'll find out as we read. It's the end of the war. It's actually within the final battle." Harry said cutting his brother off.

Ron winced, "But you do need to know that in the mission Lucius was captured in Sirius was pushed through the veil by Bellatrix." Remus paled as he grasped for his best friends hand. "And that because his mate was dead Remus began to lose his strength so he married Nymphadora Tonks and had a son, Teddy Remus Lupin. Harry's his godfather."

No one said anything as Dumbledore pulled out a stack of papers and enchanted them. "They will read themselves aloud so we will not lose our voices." He said peering at the man over his half-moon spectacles.


	2. Chapter 2

**Next chapter was already done…but please don't expect such fast updates in the future! I'm a Freshman in College and a music ed major…I literally only have a few hours to myself. The rest of my time is in classes and choirs.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

* * *

><p><em>No one said anything as Dumbledore pulled out a stack of papers and enchanted them. "They will read themselves aloud so we will not lose our voices." He said peering at the man over his half-moon spectacles. <em>

"**For one teetering second, while the crashes and booms of the battle filled the air, Harry hesitated. Voldemort wanted him to do this, wanted him to come...Was he leading Ron and Hermione into a trap? But the reality seemed to close upon him, cruel and plain: the only way forward was to kill the snake, and the snake was where Voldemort was, and Voldemort was at the end of this tunnel...**

"Why do you need the snake?" Severus asked carefully. He didn't like the way this sounded.

"Remember how we spoke of horcruxes?" Harry asked. When he received nods he continued, "He made six, and unknowingly made a seventh. Slytherin's locket, Tom Riddle's diary, Ravenclaw's diadem, Hufflepuff's cup, the Gaunt family ring, and his familiar Nagini were his main horcruxes."

"What was his accidental?" Lily asked.

Harry sighed, really the girl could have been a Ravenclaw. "You'll find out shortly."**"Harry, we're coming, just get in there!" said Ron, pushing him forward.****Harry wriggled into the earthy passage hidden in the tree's roots.****It was a much tighter squeeze than it had been the last time they had entered it. The tunnel was low-ceilinged: they had had to double up to move through it nearly four years previously; now there was nothing for it but to crawl. Harry went first, his wand illuminated, expecting at any moment to meet barriers, but none came. They moved in silence, Harry's gaze fixed upon the swinging beam of the wand held in his fist. At last, the tunnel began to slope upward and Harry saw a sliver of light ahead. Hermione tugged at his ankle.****"The Cloak!" she whispered. "Put the Cloak on!"**

James sat up straighter at the mention of his cloak, while everyone else in the room just rolled their eyes at him.**He groped behind him and she forced the bundle of slippery cloth into his free hand. With difficulty he dragged it over himself, murmured, "Nox," extinguishing his wandlight, and continued on his hands and knees, as silently as possible, all his senses straining, expecting every second to be discovered, to hear a cold clear voice, see a flash of green light.**

"Don't think like that!" Lucius exclaimed. He couldn't bear the thought of wither of his children hurt. James whispered into his ear rubbed his back gently.**And then he heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of them, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate. Hardly daring to breathe, Harry edged right up tot he opening and peered through a tiny gap left between crate and wall.****The room beyond was dimly lit, but he could see Nagini, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe in her enchanted, starry sphere, which floated unsupported in midair. He could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand.**

Everyone seemed to be holding their breath as the voice read.**Then Snape spoke, and Harry's heart lurched: Snape was inches away from where he crouched, hidden.**

Severus paled, "What-?"

Harry shook his head gently, indicating he would find out.**"...my Lord, their resistance is crumbling."****"And it is doing so without your help," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice. "Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there...almost."**

James raised an eyebrow at Severus, "What are you doing in Voldemort's presence, Snape?"

Severus didn't rise to the bait, he just shrugged and continued to listen.**"Let me find the boy. Let me bring you Potter. I know I can find him, my Lord. Please."**

Lucius' eyes widened, "Severus! That's my child!"

"I don't know what I'm doing! This is how far into the future?!" The dark eyed teen exclaimed.**Snape strode past the gap, and Harry drew back a little, keeping his eyes fixed upon Nagini, wondering whether there was any spell that might penetrate the protection surrounding her, but he could not think of anything. One failed attempt, and he would give away his position...****Voldemort stood up. Harry could see him now, see the red eyes, the flattened, serpentine face, the pallor of him gleaming slightly in the semidarkness.**

The whole room shivered in tandem, except Harry, Draco, Ron, and Dumbledore.**"I have a problem, Severus," said Voldemort softly.****"My Lord?" said Snape.****Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton.**

The pureblood's eyes widened while Dumbledore froze.**"Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"****In the silence Harry imagined he could hear the snake hissing slightly as it coiled and uncoiled. Or was it Voldemort's sibilant sigh lingering on the air?****"My lord?" said Snape blankly. "I do not understand. You have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."****"No," said Voldemort. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand...no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago."**

Suddenly Dumbledore's face lit up with understanding and he looked at Severus sadly.**Voldemort's tone was musing, calm, but Harry's scar had begun to throb and pulse: Pain was building in his forehead, and he could feel that controlled sense of fury building inside Voldemort.**

"Yo-you can feel him?" Lucius asked lightly, he suddenly didn't fell well.

Harry shrugged, "It's bearable now."**"No difference," said Voldemort again.****Snape did not speak. Harry could not see his face. He wondered whether Snape sensed danger, was trying to find the right words to reassure his master.**

Severus frowned as Lily began to worry. Her best friend and the boy she loved was in a lot of danger. Just the way Voldemort spoke promised pain.**Voldemort started to move around the room: Harry lost sight of him for seconds as he prowled, speaking in that same measured voice, while the pain and fury mounted in Harry.****"I have thought long and hard, Severus...do you know why I have called you back from battle?"****And for a moment Harry saw Snape's profile. His eyes were fixed upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage.****"No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter."**

"I wonder why you want to find Harry?" Lily asked no one in particular. "Unless you're just trying to escape Voldemort's presence."

Harry smiled at the green eyed women.**"You sound like Lucius."**

"Well that one's obvious. He wants to protect his son."

"**Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I knew his weakness you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come."**

Harry shivered and turned his face inwards to Ron's neck. He couldn't bear the memories.**"But my Lord, he might be killed accidentally by someone other than yourself-"****"My instructions to the Death Eaters have been perfectly clear. Capture Potter. Kill his friends the more, the better but do not kill him."**

"If he had hurt you-" Harry started not looking Ron in the face.

"But he didn't Harry. I was ok. I was always going to be ok, because if it was between you dying and me dying the choice is simple. And I'd be _ok_ with it. I'd rather die than to see you killed." The red headed mans words tore at Harry's heart. He knew what Ron had to go through that day and he felt terrible for it every day.

Lucius smiled at the couple as the voice continued to read.**"But it is of you that I wished to speak, Severus, not Harry Potter. You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable."**

Everyone froze at the man's words. They knew this wouldn't end well for Severus.**"My Lord knows I seek only to serve him. But…let me go and find the boy, my Lord. Let me bring him to you. I know I can."**

"You seem pretty admant on seeing Harry." James said his eyebrows furrowed. He wondered silently what that could mean.**"I have told you, no!" said Voldemort, and Harry caught the glint of red in his eyes as he turned again, and the swishing of his cloak was like the slithering of a snake, and he felt Voldemort's impatience in his burning scar. "My concern at the moment, Severus, is what will happen when I finally meet the boy!"****"My Lord, there can be no question, surely-?"****"But there is a question, Severus. There is."****Voldemort halted, and Harry could see him plainly again as he slid the Elder Wand through his white fingers, staring at Snape.****"Why did both the wands I have used fail when directed at Harry Potter?"**

"What?!" Sirius exclaimed, "Voldy's wands don't work against you?"

Harry shrugged, "It's kind of complicated. We have brother wands." There was silence at that explanation.**"I cannot answer that, my Lord."****"Can't you?"****The stab of rage felt like a spike driven through Harry's head: he forced his own fist into his mouth to stop himself from crying out in pain. He closed his eyes, and suddenly he was Voldemort, looking into Snape's pale face.**

There was panic amongst the faces of the young teen.**"My wand of yew did everything of which I asked it, Severus, except to kill Harry Potter. Twice it failed. Ollivander told me under torture of the twin cores, told me to take another's wand. I did so, but Lucius's wand shattered upon meeting Potter's."**

"That's because a parent's wand refuses to kill their child. Only if the parent truly loves their child it cannot be used against them." Dumbledore explained to the confused group.

Lucius sighed in relief and sagged against James' chest.**"I have no explanation, my Lord."****Snape was not looking at Voldemort now. His dark eyes were still fixed upon the coiling serpent in its protective sphere.****"I sought a third wand, Severus. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore."**

Gasps sounded in the room, "Dumbledore's dead?" Remus asked worriedly.

Draco nodded, "Remember how I said it was my mission?" He nodded, "I may not have done it, but someone else did."**And now Snape looked at Voldemort, and Snape's face was like a death mask. It was marble white and so still that when he spoke, it was a shock to see that anyone lived behind the blank eyes.**

Lily frowned and took Severus' hand in her own.**"My Lord, let me go to the boy-"**

"You just keep wanting to find, Harry." Lily said, thoughtfully. "It seems almost…desperate."

"And Severus Snape is never desperate." Harry, Ron, and Draco recited causing everyone else to look at them in amusement. They must know Severus personally in their time.**"All this long night when I am on the brink of victory, I have sat here," said Voldemort, his voice barely louder than a whisper, "wondering, wondering, why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner...and I think I have the answer."****Snape did not speak.****"Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all, Severus. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen."**

Everyone's eyes went wide. The snake-faced git was going to kill him!**"My Lord-"****"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore."**

Gasps of shock sounded throughout the room. But no one could berate the teen as he had gone so white that even Ron was worried about him. Then he started to shake.

Harry stood from his place next to Ron to kneel in front of his ex-potions Professor. "Severus, you did it for a reason." He said so softly that only Lily and Severus heard him. "Don't hate yourself for something that the old codger forced you into."

"Dumbledore had me kill him?" Severus asked faintly, only loud enough for Harry and Lily to hear.

Harry nodded, "You'll find out soon." He then turned and returned to his seat.

"**While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot truly be mine."****"My Lord!" Snape protested, raising his wand.****"It cannot be any other way," said Voldemort. "I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last."**

Dumbledore sighed and shook his head, "That's not the way it works."**And Voldemort swiped the air with the Elder Wand. It did nothing to Snape, who for a split second seemed to think he had been reprieved: but then Voldemort's intention became clear. The snake's cage was rolling through the air, and before Snape could do anything more than yell, it had encased him, head and shoulders, and Voldemort spoke in Parseltongue.****"Kill."****There was a terrible scream. Harry saw Snape's face losing the little color it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake's fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor.**

"That's a terrible way to die." Sirius said with a wince. James nodded in agreement as he held tightly to Lucius who refused to let himself cry over his best friends death. He was a Malfoy damnit! Malfoy's do not cry!

Lily on the other hand held no such notion and cried silently into Severus' chest. Severus himself was just frozen in place holding Lily tightly to him.**"I regret it," said Voldemort coldly.**

"No you didn't you cold hearted bastard." Draco said coldly. He had no idea how the bastard had killed his godfather.**He turned away; there was no sadness in him, no remorse. It was time to leave this shack and take charge, with a wand that would now do his full bidding. He pointed it at the starry cage holding the snake, which drifted upward, off Snape, who fell sideways onto the floor, blood gushing from the wounds in his neck. Voldemort swept from the room without a backward glance, and the great serpent floated after him in its huge protective sphere.****Back in the tunnel and his own mind, Harry opened his eyes; He had drawn blood biting down on his knuckles in an effort not to shout out. Now he was looking through the tiny crack between crate and wall, watching a foot in a black boot trembling on the floor.****"Harry!" breathed Hermione behind him, but he had already pointed his wand at the crate blocking his view. It lifted an inch into the air and drifted sideways silently. As quietly as he could, he pulled himself up into the room.**

"He could come back!" Lucius exclaimed. "How could you be so stupid!"

Harry grinned, "It's that damnable Gryffindor courage that Dad had. Anyway, he doesn't come back in."**He did not know why he was doing it, why he was approaching the dying man: he did not know what he felt as he saw Snape's white face, and the fingers trying to staunch the bloody wound at his neck. Harry took off the invisibility cloak and looked down upon the man he hated, whose widening black eyes found Harry as he cried to speak. Harry bent over him, and Snape seized the front of his robes and pulled him close.****A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issued from Snape's throat.****"Take...it...Take...it..."**

Everyone was extremely confused by the dying man's wish.**Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed form his mouth and his ears and his eyes, and Harry knew what it was, but did not know what to do. A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into his shaking hand by Hermione. Harry lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry's robes slackened.****"Look...at...me..." he whispered.****The green eyes found the black, but after a second, something in the depths of the dark seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.**

Lily's quiet cries turned into sobs and everyone was silent in respect for Severus' death.


	3. Chapter 3

**Look at what I found in my computer! I was getting ready to type this chapter when I saw one of my documents labeled 'Lucius/James'. I opened it and I found the two chapters I had posted but it seemed to long so I scrolled down! I found three unposted chapters that I had already written! Now I feel terrible for not updating sooner so I will give you the two out of three chapters. I shall hold onto the third as a hostage until I see fit!**

**When I post these things my mac likes to screw with the way I paragraphed things so I fixed it all manually. I'm sorry if I missed something!**

**Now enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

><p><em>Harry sighed, "I know that was a lot to take in but the next chapter will answer a lot of questions for everyone."<em>

**Harry remained kneeling at Snape's side, simply staring down at him, until quite suddenly a high, cold voice spoke so close to them that Harry jumped on his feet, the flask gripped tightly ****in his hands****, thinking that Voldemort had reentered the room.**

**Voldemort's voice reverberated from the walls and floor, and Harry realized that he was talking to Hogwarts and to all the surrounding area, that the residents of Hogsmeade and all those still fighting in the castle would hear him as clearly as if he stood beside them, his ****breath**** on the back of their necks, a deathblow away.****"You have fought," said the high, cold voice, "valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery."**

There were scoffs at that but none of them were really into it. Listening to one of your classmate's deaths really ruined the moment.

**"Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste."**

"Then why do it?" Lily asked in a husky voice.

"Because he's a sick bastard." Draco deadpanned. Lucius shot him a look but the man just shrugged. It was strange being older than your own parents.

**"Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one ****hour****. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured."****"I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends ****to die**** for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."**

Lucius groaned, it seemed as if his children would never catch a break.

**Both Ron and Hermione shook their heads frantically, looking at Harry.****"Don't listen to him, Harry." said Ron desperately.**

Harry turned and smiled sadly at his husband.

Ron shrugged, "I had finally admitted to my feelings I wasn't about to let you go off and get yourself killed." Harry just smiled sheepishly at the man's words.

**"It'll be all right," said Hermione wildly. "Let's get back to the castle, if he's gone to the forest we'll need to think of a new plan."****She glanced at Snape's body, then hurried back to the tunnel entrance. Ron followed her. **

**Harry gathered up the Invisibility Cloak, then looked down at Snape. He did not know what to feel, except shock at the way Snape had been killed, and the reason for which it had been done...**

"I take it we never got on?"

"Well…your best friend was heart broken because he had to divorce his husband. You never knew I was Lucius' son, you thought I was Lily's, so it gave you reason to hate me…I never held a grudge after I found out what truly happened." Severus nodded in understanding.

**They crawled back through the tunnel, none of them talking, and Harry wondered whether Ron and Hermione could still hear Voldemort ringing in their heads as he could.****You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest...One hour...**

"Don't even think about it, Harry James Potter-Malfoy!" Lucius exclaimed.

Harry shrugged, "It's all in the past for me. It's already happened and I'm still here."

"Yes, but it hasn't happened in _this_ time yet." Lucius said firmly.

Harry's eyes softened, "And we're going to try to stop it from happening.

"**Small bundles seemed to litter the lawn at the front of the castle. It could only be an hour or so from dawn, yet it was pitch-black. The three of them hurried toward the stone steps. A lone dog, the size of a small boat, lay abandoned in front of them. There was no other sign of Grawp or of his attacker.****The castle was unnaturally silent. There were no flashes of light now, no bangs or screams or shouts. The flagstones of the deserted entrance hall were stained with blood. Emeralds were still scattered all over ****the floor****, along with pieces of marble and splintered wood. Part of the banisters had been blown away.**

**"Where is everyone?" whispered Hermione.****Ron led the way to the Great Hall. Harry stopped in the doorway.****The House**** tables were gone and the room was crowded. The survivors stood in groups, their arms around each other's necks. The injured were being treated upon the raised platform by Madam Pomfrey and a group of helpers. Firenze was amongst the injured; his flank poured blood and he shook where he lay, unable to stand.****The dead lay in a row in the middle of the Hall. **

**Harry could not see Fred's body, because his family surrounded him. George was kneeling at his head; Mrs. Weasley was lying across Fred's chest, her body shaking. Mr. Weasley stroking her hair while tears cascaded down his cheeks.****Without a word to Harry, Ron and Hermione walked away. Harry saw Hermione approach Ginny, whose face was swollen and blotchy, and hug her. Ron joined Bill, Fleur, and Percy, who flung an arm around Ron's shoulders. As Ginny and Hermione moved closer to the rest of the family, Harry had a clear view of the bodies lying next to Fred. Remus and Tonks, pale and still and peaceful-looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling.**

There was silence and Sirius just continued to shake his head. "No, Remus can't die."

"That's why we're here, Padfoot. Everything that happened never should have happened. We're here to fix it." Harry said softly. "Trust me…everyone who died…it haunts me every day. I still refuse to have a family with Ron because I'm terrified…"

Ron looked shocked at the confession but said nothing, he just pulled Harry closer to him and kissed his forehead.

**The Great Hall seemed to fly away, become smaller, shrink, as Harry reeled backward from the doorway. He could not draw breath. He could not bear to look at any of the other bodies, to see who else had died for him. He could not bear to join the Weasleys, could not look into their eyes, when if he had given himself up in the first place, Fred might never have died...**

"Harry, Fred went exactly the way he wanted to…laughing. It had nothing to do with you. It was a crazy Death Eater." Harry said nothing, he tried to tell himself that…but he just couldn't believe it.

**He turned away and ran up the marble ****staircase****. Lupin, Tonks... He yearned not to feel... He wished he could rip out his heart, his innards, everything that was screaming inside him...**

Lucius felt the tears drip from his eyes. His baby boy was in pain and there was nothing he could do to make it better.

**The castle was completely empty; even the ghosts seemed to have joined the mass mourning in the Great Hall. Harry ran without stopping, clutching the crystal flask of Snape's last thoughts, and he did not slow down until he reached the stone gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office.**

**"Password?"**

**"Dumbledore!" said Harry without thinking, because it was he whom he yearned to see, and to his surprise the gargoyle slid aside revealing the ****spiral staircase**** behind.****But when Harry burst into the circular office he found a change. The portraits that hung all around the walls were empty. Not a single headmaster or headmistress remained to see him; all, it seemed, had flitted away, charging through the paintings that lined the castle so that they could have a clear view of what was going on.**

**Harry glanced hopelessly at Dumbledore's deserted frame, which hung directly behind the headmaster's chair, then turned his back on it. The stone Pensieve lay in the ****cabinet**** where it had always been. Harry heaved it onto the desk and poured Snape's memories into the wide basin with its runic markings around the edge. To escape into someone else's head would be a blessed relief... Nothing that even Snape had left him could be worse than his own thoughts. The memories swirled, silver white and strange, and without hesitating, with a feeling of reckless abandonment, as though this would assuage his torturing grief, Harry dived.**

No one had anything to say. The poor man had been through so much.

**He fell headlong into sunlight, and his feet found warm ground. When he straightened up, he saw that he was in a nearly deserted playground. A single huge chimney dominated the distant skyline. Two girls were swinging backward and forward, and a ****skinny**** boy was watching them from behind a clump of bushes. His black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smocklike shirt.**

Lily and Severus smirked at the memory while the others were confused.

**Harry moved closer to the boy. Snape looked no more than nine or ten years old, sallow, small, stringy. There was undisguised greed in his thin face as he watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister.**

The two in question blushed brightly at that.

**"Lily, don't do it!" shrieked the elder of the two.****But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly.**

**"Mummy told you not to!"****Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips.****"Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!"**

"It's Lily!"

"No shit Sherlock."

"No need to be mean, Prongsie."

James just rolled his eyes at his best friend and continued to rub Lucius' back soothingly.

**"But I'm fine," said Lily, still giggling. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do."**

**Petunia glanced around. The playground was deserted apart from themselves and, though the girls did not know it, Snape. Lily had ****picked up**** a fallen flower from the bush behind which Snape lurked. Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, ****opening ****and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.**

**"Stop it!" shrieked Petunia.**

**"It's not hurting you," said Lily, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground.**

"You had amazing control over your magic at that age." Remus said with a small grin.

Lily blushed, "It just came naturally."

**"It's not right," said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it. "How do you do it?" she added, and there was definite longing in her voice.**

**"It's obvious, isn't it?" Snape could no longer contain himself, but had jumped out from behind the bushes. Petunia shrieked and ran backward toward the swings, but Lily, though clearly startled, remained where she was. Snape seemed to regret his appearance. A dull flush of color mounted the sallow cheeks as he looked at Lily.**

**"What's obvious?" asked Lily.****Snape had an air of nervous excitement. **

**With a glance at the distant Petunia, now hovering beside the swings, he lowered his voice and said, "I know what you are."****"What do you mean?"**

**"You're...you're a witch," whispered Snape.**

James winced, "Not the best way to phrase that, mate."

Severus nodded in remembrance but continued to smile.

**She looked affronted.****"That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!"****She turned, nose in the air, and marched off toward her sister.**

There were slight chuckles at mini Lily. The older version just continued to blush and hide her face in Severus' chest.

**"No!" said Snape. He was highly colored now, and Harry wondered why he did not take off the ridiculously large coat, unless it was because he did not want to reveal the smock beneath it. He flapped after the girls, looking ludicrously bat like, like his older self.**

Severus raised an eyebrow at the older man, Harry just shrugged.

**The sisters considered him, united in disapproval, both holding on to one of the swing poles, as though it was the safe place in tag.**

**"You are," said Snape to Lily. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."**

**Petunia's laugh was like cold water.****"Wizard!" she shrieked, her courage returned now that she had recovered from the shock of his unexpected appearance. "I know who you are. You're that Snape boy! They live down Spinner's End by the river," she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered the address a poor recommendation. "Why have you been spying on us?"**

"Don't worry little Severus, it seems as if Lily's sister is a bitch. Ignore her." Sirius said to the book, causing everyone to raise an eyebrow at the Maurder.

**"Haven't been spying," said Snape, hot and uncomfortable and dirty-haired in the bright sunlight. "Wouldn't spy on you, anyway," he added spitefully, "you're a Muggle."**

"There's nothing wrong with Muggles, Severus. Just some of them are very mean hearted." Harry said sadly. "Don't turn into Voldemort and his hatred of Muggles." Severus nodded in undersanding.

**Though Petunia evidently did not understand the word, she could hardly mistake the tone.****"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" she said shrilly. Lily obeyed her sister at once, glaring at Snape as she left. He stood watching them as they marched through the playground gate, and Harry, the only one left to observe him, recognized Snape's bitter disappointment, and understood that Snape had been planning this moment for a while, and that it had all gone wrong...**

"Had you really?" Lily asked gently.

Severus nodded, a light blush on his cheeks. Lily kissed his nose, "You're sweet." There were some chuckles at that but Severus ignored them all in favor of a large smile.

**The scene dissolved, and before Harry knew it, re-formed around him. He was now in a small thicket of trees. He could see a sunlit river glittering through their trunks. The shadows cast by the trees made a basin of cool green shade. Two children sat facing each other, cross-legged on the ground. Snape had removed his coat now; his odd smock looked less peculiar in the half light.**

**"...and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you get letters."**

**"But I have done magic outside school!"**

**"We're all right. We haven't got wands yet. They let you off when you're a kid and you can't help it. But once you're eleven," he nodded importantly, "and they start training you, then you've got to go careful."**

"You know, you seem like you were a cute kid." James said to his ex-rival.

Severus just raised an eyebrow at the teen before chuckling slightly. Lily on the other hand glared at the messy haired teen, "He's my Slytherin! You have Lucius!"

There were some chuckles throughout the room at that and Lily blushed spectacularly. Severus chuckled and kissed Lily's hair lovingly as Lucius grabbed James' hand.

"She's right." he said to his boyfriend. "Though I understand what you meant you are not to call anyone else cute or adorable!"

James smirked, "What about Harry and Draco? I'm sure they were adorable when they were babies."

Lucius looked mock thoughtful, "I guess I can allow that."

On the other hand Harry and Draco mock pouted, "What we're not cute now?" they asked together getting even more laughter from the group and Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

Ron kissed Harry's scar lovingly, "I think you're utterly adorable, Love." Harry just grinned and snuggled closer to his husband as Draco mock glared at his twin.

**There was a little silence. Lily had picked up a fallen twig and twirled it in the air, and Harry knew that she was imagining sparks trailing from it. Then she dropped the twig, leaned in toward the boy, and said, "It is real, isn't it? It's not a joke? Petunia says you're lying to me. Petunia says there isn't a Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?"**

**"It's real for us," said Snape. "Not for her. But we'll get the letter, you and me."**

**"Really?" whispered Lily.**

**"Definitely," said Snape, and even with his poorly cut hair and his odd clothes, he struck an oddly impressive figure sprawled in front of her, brimful of confidence in his destiny.**

**"And will it really come by owl?" Lily whispered.**

**"Normally," said Snape. "But you're Muggle-born, so someone from the school will have to come and explain to your parents."**

**"Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?"**

**Snape hesitated. His black eyes, eager in the greenish gloom, moved over the pale face, the dark red hair.****"No," he said. "It doesn't make any difference."**

Lily frowned, "You lied to me."

Severus sighed, "I had a major crush on you! Of course being a muggleborn wouldn't make a difference to me. I just didn't want you not to come with me when you found out about the purebloods."

**"Good," said Lily, relaxing. It was clear that she had been worrying.**

**"You've got loads of magic," said Snape. "I saw that. All the time I was watching you..."**

**His voice trailed away; she was not listening, but had stretched out on the leafy ground and was looking up at the canopy of leaves overhead. He watched her as greedily as he had watched her in the playground.**

**"How are things at your house?" Lily asked. ****A little crease appeared between his eyes.**

**"Fine," he said.**

**"They're not arguing anymore?"**

**"Oh yes, they're arguing," said Snape. He picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. "But it won't be that long and I'll be gone."**

Sirius frowned, that sounded familiar. "Snape…Severus…did your parents ever-?"

Severus didn't answer he just looked down at his hands and waited for the book to continue. Harry frowned and sighed. They'd find out sooner or later.

**"Doesn't your dad like magic?"**

**"He doesn't like anything, much," said Snape.**

**"Severus?"****A little smile twisted Snape's mouth when she said his name.**

**"Yeah?"**

**"Tell me about the dementors again."**

**"What d'you want to know about them for?"**

**"If I use magic outside school-"**

**"They wouldn't give you to the dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too good."**

"Aw, Severus, your first crush!" Lucius teased. Severus just rolled his eyes at his friend.

**He turned red again and shredded more leaves. Then a small rustling noise behind Harry made him turn: Petunia, hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing.****"Tuney!" said Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Snape had jumped to his feet.**

**"Who's spying now?" he shouted. "What d'you want?"**

**Petunia was breathless, alarmed at being caught. Harry could see her struggling for something hurtful to say.**

**"What is that you're wearing, anyway?" she said, pointing at Snape's chest. "Your mum's blouse?"**

**There was a crack. A branch over Petunia's head had fallen. Lily screamed. The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears.**

Everyone winced.

**"Tuney!" ****But Petunia was running away. Lily rounded on Snape. ****"Did you make that happen?"**

**"No." He looked both defiant and scared.**

**"You did!" She was backing away from him. "You did! You hurt her!"**

**"No-no, I didn't!"**

Remus sighed, "He did but I don't think he meant to. Accidental magic, remember?"

Lily blushed at the thought of how hasty she was when she was younger.

**But the lie did not convince Lily. After one last burning look, she ran from the little thicket, off after her sister, and Snape looked miserable and confused...****And the scene re-formed. **

**Harry looked around. He was on platform nine and three quarters, and Snape stood beside him, slightly hunched, next to a thin, sallow-faced, sour-looking woman who greatly resembled him. Snape was staring at a family of four a short distance away. The two girls stood a little apart from their parents. Lily seemed to be pleading with her sister. Harry moved closer to listen.**

**"...I'm sorry, Tuney, I'm sorry! Listen-" She caught her sister's hand and held tight to it, even though Petunia tried to pull it away. "Maybe once I'm there-no, listen, Tuney! Maybe once I'm there, I'll be able to go to Professor Dumbledore and persuade him to change his mind!"**

Dumbledore sighed, "Unfortunately, Petunia did not have any magic in her to attend Hogwarts. I wish I could have given a different answer."

**"I don't want to go!" said Petunia, and she dragged her hand back out of her sister's grasp. "You think I want to go to some stupid castle and learn to be a-a..."****Her pale eyes roved over the platform, over the cats mewling in their owners' arms, over the owls, fluttering and hooting at each other in cages, over the students, some already in their long black robes, loading trunks onto the scarlet steam engine or else greeting one another with glad cries after a summer apart.****" you think I want to be a-a freak?"**

Harry sighed, that was a familiar term in his childhood home. Lucius' eyes narrowed. "My son lived with _her_?" he asked incredulously.

No one said anything to make the Malfoy heir feel better. They had nothing _to _say.  
><strong><br>****Lily's eyes filled with tears as Petunia succeeded in tugging her hand away.****"I'm not a freak," said Lily. "That's a horrible thing to say."**

**"That's where you're going," said Petunia with relish. "A special school for freaks. You and that Snape boy...weirdos, that's what you two are. It's good you're being separated from normal people. It's for our safety."**

**Lily glanced toward her parents, who were looking around the platform with an air of wholehearted enjoyment, drinking in the scene. Then she looked back at her sister, and her voice was low and fierce.****"You didn't think it was such a freak's school when you wrote to the headmaster and begged him to take you."**

**Petunia turned scarlet.****"Beg? I didn't beg!"**

**"I saw his reply. It was very kind."**

**"You shouldn't have read-" whispered Petunia, "That was my private-how could you?"**

**Lily gave herself away by half-glancing toward where Snape stood nearby. Petunia gasped.****"That boy found it! You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!"**

Everyone winced, this was not a good situation.

**"No, not sneaking…" Now Lily was on the defensive. "Severus saw the envelope, and he couldn't believe a Muggle could have contacted Hogwarts, that's all! He says there must be wizards working undercover in the postal service who take care of-"**

**"Apparently wizards poke their noses in everywhere!" said Petunia, now as pale as she had been flushed. "Freak!" she spat at her sister, and she flounced off to where her parents stood...****The scene dissolved again. **

**Snape was hurrying along the corridor of the Hogwarts Express as it clattered through the countryside. He had already changed into his school robes, had perhaps taken the first opportunity to take off his dreadful Muggle clothes. At last he stopped, outside a compartment in which a group of rowdy boys were talking. Hunched in a corner seat beside the window was Lily, her face pressed against the windowpane.****Snape slid open the compartment door and sat down opposite Lily. She glanced at him and then looked back out of the window. She had been crying.**

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes, "I was a little bit melodramatic back then wasn't I?"

Severus shrugged, "We were all young. I think we were all a little bit melodramatic."

**"I don't want to talk to you," she said in a constricted voice.**

**"Why not?"**

**"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."**

**"So what?"****She threw him a look of deep dislike.**

**"So she's my sister!"**

**"She's only a-" He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him.**

Lily turned to glare at the teen. Severus just smiled sheepishly.

**"But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"****She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled.****"You'd better be in Slytherin," said Snape, encouraged that she had brightened a little.**

Lily smiled fondly, "I almost was. But the hat told me my courage preceded my cunning."

Severus gave her a sad smile.

**"Slytherin?"****One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked around at the word, and Harry, whose attention had been focused entirely on the two beside the window, saw his father: slight, black-haired like Snape, but with that indefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked.**

James flinched as Sirius' eyes narrowed. He had an idea of what was going on in the Snape household.

**"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked the boy lounging on the seats opposite him, and with a jolt, Harry realized that it was Sirius. **

**Sirius did not smile.****"My whole family have been in Slytherin," he said.**

**"Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed all right!"**

**Sirius grinned.**

The two of them smiled fondly at the memory. "I was a bit of a prat wasn't I?" He received no answer so he pouted.

**"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"**

**James lifted an invisible sword.****"'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad."**

**Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him.****"Got a problem with that?"**

**"No," said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy."**

"That's actually Ravenclaw you're thinking about then, Severus." Draco said with a smirk. Severus just grinned.

**"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" interjected Sirius.**

Sirius groaned. "I sound like a right bastard."

"That's because you were." Remus replied with no hesitation. Sirius just poked his best friend/boyfriend.

**James roared with laughter. Lily sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike.****"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."**

**"Oooooo..."**

Ron raised an eyebrow, "You guys were gits."

James and Sirius blushed and looked down. They were embarrassed to the extreme.

**James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice; James tried to trip Snape as he passed.****"See ya, Snivellus!" a voice called, as the compartment door slammed...**

The Mauders and Severus flinched at the nickname while Lily glared at three with sheepish faces.

"Listen, Severus, we're sorry for everything. Nothing like that will ever happen again." James said in a firm voice. He meant it, no more acting like a spoilt child. His family will not get torn apart this time…he would be strong.

**And the scene dissolved once more...****Harry was standing right behind Snape as they faced the candlelit House tables, lined with rapt faces. Then Professor McGonagall said, "Evans, Lily!"**

**He watched his mother walk forward on trembling legs and sit down upon the rickety stool. Professor McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat onto her head, and barely a second after it had touched the dark red hair, the hat cried, "Gryffindor!"**

**Harry heard Snape let out a tiny groan. Lily took off the hat, handed it back to Professor McGonagall, then hurried toward the cheering Gryffindors, but as she went she glanced back at Snape, and there was a sad little smile on her face. Harry saw Sirius move up the bench to make room for her. She took one look at him, seemed to recognize him from the train, folded her arms, and firmly turned her back on him.**

There were chuckles at that. "Way to go Lily!" Draco cheered.

**The roll call continued. Harry watched Lupin, Pettigrew, and his father joined Lily and Sirius at the Gryffindor table. At last, when only a dozen students remained to be sorted, Professor McGonagall called Snape.****Harry walked with him to the stool, watched him place the hat upon his head. "Slytherin!" cried the Sorting Hat.**

**And Severus Snape moved off to the other side of the Hall, away from Lily, to where the Slytherins were cheering him, to where Lucius Malfoy, a prefect badge gleaming upon his chest, patted Snape on the back as he sat down beside him...**

"My over achieving Slytherin." James said with a smirk.

"I'll have you know that 'your over achieving Slytherin' is also Head Boy." Lucius said with a raised eyebrow, "And that means I can give you a detention for being a git."

James just smiled winningly at his boyfriend.

**And the scene changed...****Lily and Snape were walking across the castle courtyard, evidently arguing. Harry hurried to catch up with them, to listen in. As he reached them, he realized how much taller they both were. A few years seemed to have passed since their Sorting.**

**"...thought we were supposed to be friends?" Snape was saying, "Best friends?"**

**"We are, Sev, but I don't like some of the people you're hanging round with! I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he's creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?"**

Lucius and Severus flinched remembering what had happened that day. The Slytherin's had been over brutal.

**Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face.****"That was nothing," said Snape. "It was a laugh, that's all."**

**"It was Dark Magic, and if you think that's funny-"**

**"What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?" demanded Snape. His color rose again as he said it, unable, it seemed, to hold in his resentment.**

**"What's Potter got to do with anything?" said Lily.**

**"They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?"**

"I'm sorry, Remus for prying. It was not my place." Severus apologized. Remus just smiled at him and waved a hand as if to dismiss it.

**"He's ill," said Lily. "They say he's ill."**

**"Every month at the full moon?" said Snape.**

**"I know your theory," said Lily, and she sounded cold. "Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?"**

**"I'm just trying to show you they're not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are." ****The intensity of his gaze made her blush.**

Lily blushed here as well, "I had a crush on you as well, Sev."

There were mock coos and bat-bogey hexes flung throughout the room.

**"They don't use Dark Magic, though." She dropped her voice. "And you're being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever's down there."**

It was Sirius' turn to blush as Lily rounded on him, "I'm really sorry, Severus. I didn't think it would be all that dangerous."

Severus sighed, he wanted to forgive the animagus but that stunt had nearly killed him. "I'm not sure I can forgive you quite yet…but I'm trying."

Sirius nodded in acceptance.

**Snape's whole face contorted and he spluttered, "Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends' too! You're not going to-I won't let you-!"**

**"Let me? Let me?"****Lily's bright green eyes were slits. Snape backtracked at once.**

"Wrong thing to say, my friend." James muttered.

**"I didn't mean-I just don't want to see you made a fool of! He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!" The words seemed wrenched from him against his will.**

"Is Severus Snape jealous?" Sirius teased, a big grin on his face. Severus refused to answer and turned away.

"If it makes you feel any better, I never felt that way about Lily. She's like my little sister." James said in a reassuring tone. "Besides, she doesn't quite have the right packaging."

Lily shot James a disgusted looked and Lucius punched him in the arm. His sons rolled there eyes as Ron laughed.

**"And he's not...everyone thinks...big Quidditch hero…" Snape's bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily's eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead.**

**"I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag," she said, cutting across Snape. "I don't need you to tell me that. But Mulciber's and Avery's idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don't understand how you can be friends with them."**

"We try not to be." Lucius admitted, "But sometimes you have to pretend you agree just so they'll leave you alone."

**Harry doubted that Snape had even heard her strictures on Mulciber and Avery. The moment she had insulted James Potter, his whole body had relaxed, and as they walked away there was a new spring in Snape's step...**

Lily smiled and shook her head in amusement as she leaned back into Severus' chest.

**And the scene dissolved...****Harry watched again as Snape left the Great Hall after sitting his O.W.L. in Defense Against the Dark Arts, watched as he wandered away from the castle and strayed inadvertently close to the place beneath the beech tree where James, Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew sat together. But Harry kept his distance this time, because he knew what happened after James had hoisted Severus into the air and taunted him;**

Everyone in the room flinched at the memory. "I'm _so_ sorry, Severus."

Severus just nodded his head.

**he knew what had been done and said, and it gave him no pleasure to hear it again... He watched as Lily joined the group and went to Snape's defense. Distantly he heard Snape shout at her in his humiliation and his fury, the unforgivable word: "Mudblood."**

Lily frowned and bit her lip but said nothing.

**The scene changed...****"I'm sorry."**

**"I'm not interested."**

**"I'm sorry!"**

**"Save your breath"**

**It was nighttime. Lily, who was wearing a dressing gown, stood with her arms folded in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.**

"I'm sorry, Severus." Lily said softly. "I was just hurt."

"You had every right to be." Severus admitted with a sigh and a shake of his head.

**"I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here."**

**"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just-"**

**"Slipped out?" There was no pity in Lily's voice. "It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends, you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"**

**He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking.**

Lily frowned, "Do you want to become a Death Eater?"

"I never wanted to. I didn't say anything because I knew I'd join them if it meant keeping you safe." Severus admitted with a shrug. "But I'd never believe anything they told me or said."

**"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."**

**"No…listen, I didn't mean-"**

**"To call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"**

**He struggled on the verge of speech, but with a contemptuous look she turned and climbed back through the portrait hole...**

"Why didn't you stop me?" She asked softly.

Severus sighed again and looked down at his hands, "I'm not a strong person, Lily. I'm not a leader I'm a follower. You were the one thing keeping me from a very dark path. I guess by you saying all of that just reaffirmed my uselessness."

Lily frowned, "You are not useless, Severus Tobias Snape!" She exclaimed. Severus said nothing so the book continued.

**The corridor dissolved, and the scene took a little longer to reform: Harry seemed to fly through shifting shapes and colors until his surroundings solidified again and he stood on a hilltop, forlorn and cold in the darkness, the wind whistling through the branches of a few leafless trees. The adult Snape was panting, turning on the spot, his wand gripped tightly in his hand, waiting for something or for someone... His fear infected Harry too, even though he knew that he could not be harmed, and he looked over his shoulder, wondering what it was that Snape was waiting for. Then a blinding, jagged jet of white light flew through the air. **

**Harry thought of lightning, but Snape had dropped to his knees and his wand had flown out of his hand.****"Don't kill me!"**

**"That was not my intention." ****Any sound of Dumbledore Apparating had been drowned by the sound of the wind in the branches. He stood before Snape with his robes whipping around him, and his face was illuminated from below in the light cast by his wand.**

Dumbledore frowned, he did not want his first appearance in this book to make him seem terryifying.**  
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**"Well, Severus? What message does Lord Voldemort have for me?"**

**"No…no message. I'm here on my own account!" ****Snape was wringing his hands. He looked a little mad, with his straggling black hair flying around him.**

Lily and the others looked worried for the Slytherin.

**"I…I come with a warning…no, a request. Please…" ****Dumbledore flicked his wand. Though leaves and branches still flew through the night air around them, silence fell on the spot where he and Snape faced each other.**

**"What request could a Death Eater make of me?"**

**"The…the prophecy...the prediction...Trelawney..."**

James looked shocked, "You told him…"

"Yes, but he didn't know what that would mean. He was just surviving in the world that he found himself in." Harry defended. "I do not blame him in the slightest for what happened and neither should you."

Severus visibly relaxed.

**"Ah, yes," said Dumbledore. "How much did you relay to Lord Voldemort?"**

**"Everything…everything I heard!" said Snape. "That is why…it is for that reason…he thinks it means Lily Evans!"**

**"The prophecy did not refer to a woman," said Dumbledore. "It spoke of a boy born at the end of July-"**

**"You know what I mean! He thinks it means her son, he is going to hunt her down…kill them all!"**

**"If she means so much to you," said Dumbledore, "surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?"**

**"I have…I have asked him…"**

No one had anything to say. This was such a private thing. No one really should have heard this except for the people he meant to hear it. No one said anything at all as they all thought about what they would do in the man's position.

**"You disgust me," said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little, "You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?"**

**Snape said nothing, but merely looked up at Dumbledore.****"Hide them all, then," he croaked. "Keep her…them…safe. Please."**

"Oh, Severus…" Lily sighed, sadly.

**"And what will you give me in return, Severus?"**

**"In…in return?" Snape gaped at Dumbledore, and Harry expected him to protest, but after a long moment he said, "Anything."**

Lily took Severus' hand in her own and squeezed gently.

**The hilltop faded, and Harry stood in Dumbledore's office, and something was making a terrible sound, like a wounded animal. Snape was slumped forward in a chair and Dumbledore was standing over him, looking grim. After a moment or two, Snape raised his face, and he looked like a man who had lived a hundred years of misery since leaving the wild hilltop.**

**"I thought...you were going...to keep her...safe..."**

**"She and James put their faith in the wrong person," said Dumbledore. "Rather like you, Severus. Weren't you hoping that Lord Voldemort would spare her?"****Snape's breathing was shallow.****"Her boy survives," said Dumbledore.**

**With a tiny jerk of the head, Snape seemed to flick off an irksome fly.****"Her son lives. He has her eyes, precisely her eyes. You remember the shape and color of Lily Evans's eyes, I am sure?"**

"Why do you have green eyes?" James asked lightly, trying to diffuse the tension.

Harry shrugged, "We've discussed it and we think it's the Black blood that ran through Grandmum Dorea."

James and Lucius nodded in agreement.

**"DON'T!" bellowed Snape. "Gone...dead..."**

Lily buried her face in Severus' chest and hugged him tightly. "I'm right here, Sev. I'm not going anywhere."

**"Is this remorse, Severus?"**

**"I wish...I wish I were dead..."**

"Don't you dare say that, Severus Tobias Snape! If you ever-! I don't even have words!"

Severus kissed Lily's forehead, "I wouldn't even think about it now."

**"And what use would that be to anyone?" said Dumbledore coldly. "If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear."**

**Snape seemed to peer through a haze of pain, and Dumbledore's words appeared to take a long time to reach him.****"What…what do you mean?"**

**"You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily's son."**

**"He does not need protection. The Dark Lord has gone-"**

**"The Dark Lord will return, and Harry Potter will be in terrible danger when he does."**

Lucius and James groaned at that, "You never catch a break do ya, kid?" James asked.

Harry chuckled but shook his head, "By luck seems to be double sided. On one hand it'll be great, but if it gets too good my luck will come in and ruin it all."

Lucius and James frowned at that but continued to listen.

**There was a long pause, and slowly Snape regained control of himself, mastered his own breathing. At last he said, "Very well. Very well. But never…never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it! I cannot bear...especially Potter's son...I want your word!"**

**"My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?" Dumbledore sighed, looking down into Snape's ferocious, anguished face. "If you insist..."**

"So that's why you hated me." Severus mused. "I was a bastard to you and never allowed you to know that I was actually looking over you."

Harry nodded in affirmation.

**The office dissolved but re-formed instantly. Snape was pacing up and down in front of Dumbledore.****"Mediocre, arrogant as his father, a determined rule-breaker, delighted to find himself famous, attention-seeking and impertinent-"**

Lucius frowned at his friend, "That's my son you're complaining about!"

Severus chuckled, "And that may be why I said all of those things. If he's your son he's bound to have all of those traits."

Lucius pouted and James kissed him lightly on the lips.

**"You see what you expect to see, Severus," said Dumbledore, without raising his eyes from a copy of Transfiguration Today. "Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likable, and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him an engaging child."**

Lucius stuck his tongue out at his friend causing the whole room to laugh at the sight.

**Dumbledore turned a page, and said, without looking up, "Keep an eye on Quirrell, won't you?"**

"You knew!" Sirius yelled.

Dumbledore shrugged, "I haven't the slightest…it is in the future after all."

**A whirl of color, and now everything darkened, and Snape and Dumbledore stood a little apart in the entrance hall, while the last stragglers from the Yule Ball passed them on their way to bed.****"Well?" murmured Dumbledore.**

**"Karkaroff's Mark is becoming darker too. He is panicking, he fears retribution; you know how much help he gave the Ministry after the Dark Lord fell." Snape looked sideways at Dumbledore's crooked-nosed profile. "Karkaroff intends to flee if the Mark burns."**

**"Does he?" said Dumbledore softly, as Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies came giggling in from the grounds. "And are you tempted to join him?"**

Dumbledore chuckled as the teens smirked.

**"No," said Snape, his black eyes on Fleur's and Roger's retreating figures. "I am not such a coward."**

**"No," agreed Dumbledore. "You are a braver man by far than Igor Karkaroff. You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon..."**

Severus looked taken aback. "What in Merlin's name-?"

"I happen to agree." Harry admitted. "You are one of the bravest men I ever knew. You'll find out why soon."

**He walked away, leaving Snape looking stricken...****And now Harry stood in the headmaster's office yet again. It was nighttime, and Dumbledore sagged sideways in the throne-like chair behind the desk, apparently semiconscious. His right hand dangled over the side, blackened and burned. Snape was muttering incantations, pointing his wand at the wrist of the hand, while with his left hand he tipped a goblet full of thick golden potion down Dumbledore's throat. After a moment or two, Dumbledore's eyelids fluttered and opened.**

All of the teens frowned at that. Dumbledore couldn't die! He was Dumbledore!

**"Why," said Snape, without preamble, "why did you put on that ring? It carries a curse, surely you realized that. Why even touch it?"**

**Marvolo Gaunt's ring lay on the desk before Dumbledore. It was cracked; the sword of Gryffindor lay beside it.****Dumbledore grimaced. ****"I...was a fool. Sorely tempted..."**

**"Tempted by what?"**

**Dumbledore did not answer.**

Dumbledore's eyes lit up in understanding. He turned his gaze to Harry who just inclined his head slightly down in acknowledgement. So it was true…

**"It is a miracle you managed to return here!" Snape sounded furious. "That ring carried a curse of extraordinary power, to contain it is all we can hope for; I have trapped the curse in one hand for the time being."**

**Dumbledore raised his blackened, useless hand, and examined it with the expression of one being shown an interesting curio.****"You have done very well, Severus. How long do you think I have?"****Dumbledore's tone was conversational; he might have been asking for a weather forecast. **

**Snape hesitated, and then said, "I cannot tell. Maybe a year. There is no halting such a spell forever. It will spread eventually, it is the sort of curse that strengthens over time."**

**Dumbledore smiled. The news that he had less than a year to live seemed a matter of little or no concern to him.**

No one seemed to have words for the conversation that was taking place. It all seemed so surreal.

**"I am fortunate, extremely fortunate, that I have you, Severus."**

**"If you had only summoned me a little earlier, I might have been able to do more, buy you more time!" said Snape furiously. He looked down at the broken ring and the sword. "Did you think that breaking the ring would break the curse?"**

**"Something like that...I was delirious, no doubt..." said Dumbledore. With an effort he straightened himself in his chair. "Well, really, this makes matters much more straightforward."****Snape looked utterly perplexed. Dumbledore smiled. ****"I refer to the plan Lord Voldemort is revolving around me. His plan to have the poor Malfoy boy murder me."**

Lucius and James froze at that. They glanced over at their son and seeing that he was okay relaxed slightly.

**Snape sat down in the chair Harry had so often occupied, across the desk from Dumbledore. Harry could tell that he wanted to say more on the subject of Dumbledore's cursed hand, but the other held it up in polite refusal to discuss the matter further. Scowling, Snape said, "The Dark Lord does not expect Draco to succeed. This is merely punishment for Lucius's recent failures. Slow torture for Draco's parents, while they watch him fail and pay the price."**

Lucius' eyes filled with tears, his whole family was in danger because he never formally cancelled the contract with Narcissa! He needed to see his father as soon as this reading was over.

**"In short, the boy has had a death sentence pronounced upon him as surely as I have," said Dumbledore. "Now, I should have thought the natural successor to the job, once Draco fails, is yourself?"**

**There was a short pause.****"That, I think, is the Dark Lord's plan."**

**"Lord Voldemort foresees a moment in the near future when he will not need a spy at Hogwarts?"**

**"He believes the school will soon be in his grasp, yes."**

**"And if it does fall into his grasp," said Dumbledore, almost, it seemed, as an aside, "I have your word that you will do all in your power to protect the students at Hogwarts?"**

"So that's what you're doing!" Sirius said in understanding.

**Snape gave a stiff nod.****"Good. Now then. Your first priority will be to discover what Draco is up to. A frightened teenage boy is a danger to others as well as to himself. Offer him help and guidance, he ought to accept, he likes you-"**

**"Much less since his father has lost favor. Draco blames me, he thinks I have usurped Lucius's position."**

Draco blushed slightly but smiled, "Sorry Severus."

Severus just looked amused.

**"All the same, try. I am concerned less for myself than for accidental victims of whatever schemes might occur to the boy. Ultimately, of course, there is only one thing to be done if we are to save him from Lord Voldemort's wrath." **

**Snape raised his eyebrows and his tone was sardonic as he asked, "Are you intending to let him kill you?"**

**"Certainly not. You must kill me."**

"It was planned." Remus mused while the others just stared at the Headmaster in shock.

**There was a long silence, broken only by an odd clicking noise. Fawkes the phoenix was gnawing a bit of cuttlebone.****"Would you like me to do it now?" asked Snape, his voice heavy with irony. "Or would you like a few moments to compose an epitaph?"**

**"Oh, not quite yet," said Dumbledore, smiling. "I daresay the moment will present itself in due course. Given what has happened tonight," he indicated his withered hand, "we can be sure that it will happen within a year."**

**"If you don't mind dying," said Snape roughly, "why not let Draco do it?"**

**"That boy's soul is not yet so damaged," said Dumbledore. "I would not have it ripped apart on my account."**

**"And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?"**

Lily turned to glare at the Headmaster, "No offence, Headmaster, but if you ever think of-"

"My dear girl. I should hope we will have no need for that this time around. But never the less I will promise you that I will never ask Mr. Snape for such a thing in this time."

**"You alone know whether it will harm your soul to help an old man avoid pain and humiliation," said Dumbledore. "I ask this one great favor of you, Severus, because death is coming for me as surely as the Chudley Cannons will finish bottom of this year's league. I confess I should prefer a quick, painless exit to the protracted and messy affair it will be if, for instance, Greyback is involved.**

Remus growled at the wolf's name but said nothing as Sirius rubbed his back in a soothing manner.

"**I hear Voldemort has recruited him? Or dear Bellatrix, who likes to play with her food before she eats it."**

It was Sirius' turn to growl as his eyes narrowed.

**His tone was light, but his blue eyes pierced Snape as they had frequently pierced Harry, as though the soul they discussed was visible to him. At last Snape gave another curt nod.**

**Dumbledore seemed satisfied.****"Thank you, Severus..."**

**The office disappeared, and now Snape and Dumbledore were strolling together in the deserted castle grounds by twilight.****"What are you doing with Potter, all these evenings you are closeted together?" Snape asked abruptly.**

**Dumbledore looked weary.****"Why? You aren't trying to give him more detentions, Severus? The boy will soon have spent more time in detention than out."**

Lucius raised an eyebrow at the teen but said nothing as Severus shrugged.

**"He is his father over again…"**

"You know…I'm starting to take offence here." Lucius said with amusement in his eyes.

"Why would you, Lucius?" Severus asked, clearly playing along. "The boys have told us you are their mother…clearly I was talking about James."

It was James' turn to pout. Lucius just gave him a quick peck before returning to the book.

**"In looks, perhaps, but his deepest nature is much more like his mother's. I spend time with Harry because I have things to discuss with him, information I must give him before it is too late."**

**"Information," repeated Snape. "You trust him...you do not trust me."**

**"It is not a question of trust. I have, as we both know, limited time. It is essential that I give the boy enough information for him to do what he needs to do."**

The teens in the room frowned. They did not like the sound of that.

**"And why may I not have the same information?"**

**"I prefer not to put all of my secrets in one basket, particularly not a basket that spends so much time dangling on the arm of Lord Voldemort."**

**"Which I do on your orders!"**

Lily continued to glare at the Headmaster.

**"And you do it extremely well. Do not think that I underestimate the constant danger in which you place yourself, Severus. To give Voldemort what appears to be valuable information while withholding the essentials is a job I would entrust to nobody but you."**

**"Yet you confide much more in a boy who is incapable of Occlumency, whose magic is mediocre, and who has a direct connection into the Dark Lord's mind!"**

This time James and Lucius turned to glare at the dark haired teen. Draco just chuckled, "See? I'm the better twin, Severus said so."

Harry just punched his twin in the arm, "Shut up you git."

**"Voldemort fears that connection," said Dumbledore. "Not so long ago he had one small taste of what truly sharing Harry's mind means to him. It was pain such as he has never experienced. He will not try to possess Harry again, I am sure of it. Not in that way."**

"What happened?" Remus asked, curious.

Harry grinned and snuck a glance at Ron. "I thought of my loved ones. It's my ability to love that scared Voldemort the most."

Ron smiled back and kissed his husband lovingly.

**"I don't understand."**

**"Lord Voldemort's soul, maimed as it is, cannot bear close contact with a soul like Harry's. Like a tongue on frozen steel, like flesh in flame."**

**"Souls? We were talking of minds!"**

**"In the case of Harry and Lord Voldemort, to speak of one is to speak of the other."**

Suddenly it dawned on Remus and he paled, "No." he said firmly looking at Harry. "Tell me he doesn't mean…?"

Harry just nodded solemnly. Lucius was looking extremely worried. He didn't like what the last sentence implied.

**Dumbledore glanced around to make sure that they were alone. They were close by the Forbidden Forest now, but there was no sign of anyone near them.****"After you have killed me, Severus-"**

**"You refuse to tell me everything, yet you expect that small service of me!" snarled Snape, and real anger flared in the thin face now. "You take a great deal for granted, Dumbledore! Perhaps I have changed my mind!"**

**"You gave me your word, Severus. And while we are talking about services you owe me, I thought you agreed to keep a close eye on our young Slytherin friend?"**

**Snape looked angry, mutinous. Dumbledore sighed.****"Come to my office tonight, Severus, at eleven, and you shall not complain that I have no confidence in you..."**

Severus groaned, "Why did I even ask?"

Dumbledore chuckled slightly, "Because it seems that you are naturally a curious person."

**They were back in Dumbledore's office, the windows dark, and Fawkes sat silent as Snape sat quite still, as Dumbledore walked around him, talking. ****"Harry must not know, not until the last moment, not until it is necessary, otherwise how could he have the strength to do what must be done?"**

"Do what?" Lucius asked turning to glare at the Headmaster.

Dumbledore took their glares with a grain of salt. He knew it was not him they were angry with but his future self. And who was he to blame them? He seemed to be putting all of their loved ones in danger.

**"But what must he do?"**

**"That is between Harry and me. Now listen closely, Severus. There will come a time…after my death-do not argue, do not interrupt! There will come a time when Lord Voldemort will seem to fear for the life of his snake."**

**"For Nagini?" Snape looked astonished.**

**"Precisely. If there comes a time when Lord Voldemort stops sending that snake forth to do his bidding, but keeps it safe beside him under magical protection, then, I think, it will be safe to tell Harry."**

"That's why you couldn't keep your eyes off of the snake." Sirius thought out loud. Harry just nodded.

**"Tell him what?"**

**Dumbledore took a deep breath and closed his eyes.****"Tell him that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort's soul was blasted apart from the whole, and latched itself onto the only living soul left in that collapsed building. Part of Lord Voldemort lives inside Harry, and it is that which gives him the power of speech with snakes, and a connection with Lord Voldemort's mind that he has never understood. And while that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to and protected by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die."**

Lucius seemed to stop breathing, "No…no, no, no. You can't-!" Lucius was in hysterics.

"Luc, what's wrong? What does that mean?" James asked panicked. Lucius couldn't answer as he clung to James and the book continued on.

**Harry seemed to be watching the two men from one end of a long tunnel, they were so far away from him, their voices echoing strangely in his ears. ****"So the boy...the boy must die?" asked Snape quite calmly.**

Everything froze. James froze as he was trying to comfort his boyfriend. "You can't-"

"You're alive." Sirius stated, cutting off his best friend in an effort to help.

Harry nodded, "The book will explain."

**"And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential."**

**Another long silence. Then Snape said, "I thought...all those years...that we were protecting him for her. For Lily."**

**"We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength," said Dumbledore, his eyes still tight shut. "Meanwhile, the connection between them grows ever stronger, a parasitic growth. Sometimes I have thought he suspects it himself. If I know him, he will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will truly mean the end of Voldemort."**

All of the teens turned to glare at the Headmaster who seemed just as horrified.

**Dumbledore opened his eyes. Snape looked horrified. ****"You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment?"**

**"Don't be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?"**

**"Lately, only those whom I could not save," said Snape. He stood up. "You have used me."**

No one had words for what was happening now.

**"Meaning?"**

**"I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter's son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter-"**

**"But this is touching, Severus," said Dumbledore seriously. "Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?"**

"Of course! It's who I am!" Severus finally admitted. "I care too much for other people."

"No one can care too much." Harry said seriously. "Trust me."

Ron nodded. "Harry is the kindest person I know. And sometimes we all think he cares too much, but no matter how much we think that we know that that's what makes Harry, Harry."

**"For him?" shouted Snape. "Expecto Patronum!"**

**From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.****"After all this time?"**

**"Always," said Snape.**

Lily had no words as tears ran down her face. "Oh, Severus."

**And the scene shifted. Now, Harry saw Snape talking to the portrait of Dumbledore behind his desk.****"You will have to give Voldemort the correct date of Harry's departure from his aunt and uncle's," said Dumbledore. "Not to do so will raise suspicion, when Voldemort believes you so well informed. However, you must plant the idea of decoys; that, I think, ought to ensure Harry's safety. Try Confunding Mundungus Fletcher. And Severus, if you are forced to take part in the chase, be sure to act your part convincingly...I am counting upon you to remain in Lord Voldemort's good books as long as possible, or Hogwarts will be left to the mercy of the Carrows..."**

"What happened?" James asked quietly.

"He did his part well. Mad-eye was killed and George Weasley lost an ear. Severus cast the Sectumsempra at him, though he wasn't aiming at him." Severus paled at the thought.

**Now Snape was head to head with Mundungus in an unfamiliar tavern, Mundungus's face looking curiously blank, Snape frowning in concentration.****"You will suggest to the Order of the Phoenix," Snape murmured, "that they use decoys. Polyjuice Potion. Identical Potters. It's the only thing that might work. You will forget that I have suggested this. You will present it as your own idea. You understand?"**

**"I understand," murmured Mundungus, his eyes unfocused...****Now Harry was flying alongside Snape on a broomstick through a clear dark night: He was accompanied by other hoodded Death Eaters, and ahead were Lupin and a Harry who was really George... A Death Eater moved ahead of Snape and raised his wand, pointing it directly at Lupin's back.****"Sectumsempra!" shouted Snape.****But the spell, intended for the Death Eater's wand hand, missed and hit George instead.**

Severus shook his head. While he was proud of himself for doing the right thing, he shouldn't have needed to do it in the first place.

**And next, Snape was kneeling in Sirius's old bedroom. Tears were dripping from the end of his hooked nose as he read the old letter from Lily. The second page carried only a few words:**_** could ever have been friends with Gellert Grindelwald. I think her mind's going, personally!**__**  
><strong>_**  
><strong>_**Lots of love,**_

_**Lily**_

Lily kissed Severus softly on the lips before burying her face in the teens neck again.

**Snape took the page bearing Lily's signature, and her love, and tucked it inside his robes. Then he ripped in two the photograph he was also holding, so that he kept the part from which Lily laughed, throwing the portion showing James and Harry back onto the floor, under the chest of drawers...****And now Snape stood again in the headmaster's study as Phineas Nigellus came hurrying into his portrait.**

**"Headmaster! They are camping in the Forest of Dean! The Mudblood-"**

**"Do not use that word!"**

Lily was shocked at that, "What-?"

"He gave anyone who used that word a detention." Draco admitted. "He hated that word with such a passion it was scary."

**"The Granger girl, then, mentioned the place as she opened her bag and I heard her!"**

**"Good. Very good!" cried the portrait of Dumbledore behind the headmaster's chair. "Now, Severus, the sword! Do not forget that it must be taken under conditions of need and valor and he must not know that you give it! If Voldemort should read Harry's mind and see you acting for him-"**

**"I know," said Snape curtly. He approached the portrait of Dumbledore and pulled at its side. It swung forward, revealing a hidden cavity behind it from which he took the sword of Gryffindor.****"And you still aren't going to tell me why it's so important to give Potter the sword?" said Snape as he swung a traveling cloak over his robes.**

**"No, I don't think so," said Dumbledore's portrait. "He will know what to do with it. And Severus, be very careful, they may not take kindly to your appearance after George Weasley's mishap."**

**Snape turned at the door.****"Don't worry, Dumbledore," he said coolly. "I have a plan..."**

**And Snape left the room. Harry rose up out of the Pensieve, and moments later he lay on the carpeted floor in exactly the same rooms Snape might just have closed the door.**

"Well, shall we continue on?" Ron asked as lightly as possible.

Lucius nodded through his tears, "I need to know…what happens."

Harry slowly got up from his spot next to Ron and made his way over to his parents and sat down in between them. He knew they'd need the confirmation that he was okay.

Lucius grabbed the man's hand tightly in his own. "You have to be okay." He whispered softly.

"I'm here aren't I?" Harry tried to tease as the book started up again.

* * *

><p><strong>I realized as I reread this chapter that it makes no sense to the age of Lucius and James. Because in Severus' memories it clearly states that Lucius had a prefects badge but you don't get those til fifth year...and I only made him a year older than the Marauders, Lily, and Severus. <strong>**But in Canon he's about four years older.**

**I'm just gonna ask you to ignore this and just go with it...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Finally, the truth. Lying with his face pressed into the dusty carpet of the office where he had once thought he was learning the secrets of victory, Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death's welcoming arms. Along the way, he was to dispose of Voldemort's remaining links to life, so that when at last he flung himself across Voldemort's path, and did not raise a wand to defend himself, the end would be clean, and the job that ought to have been done in Godric's Hollow would be finished. Neither would live, neither could survive.**

Lucius choked on a sob. Harry frowned, was this what it was like to have parents that actually cared?

**He felt his heart pounding fiercely in his chest. How strange that in his dread of death, it pumped all the harder, valiantly keeping him alive. But it would have to stop, and soon. Its beats were numbered. How many would there be time for, as he rose and walked through the castle ****for the last time****, out into the grounds and into the forest?**

"You're extremely morbid." Sirius deadpanned.

"I think you would be too if someone basically old you, you had to die to save the wizarding world!" Severus exclaimed.

Sirius had enough sense to look sheepish as Remus glared at his mate.

**Terror washed over him as he lay on the floor, with that ****funeral**** drum pounding inside him. Would it hurt to die? All those times he had thought that it was about to happen and escaped, he had never really thought of the thing itself: His will to live had always been so much stronger than his ****fear of death****. Yet it did not occur to him now to try to escape, to outrun Voldemort. It was over, he knew it, and all that was left was the thing itself: dying.**

Lucius' grip on his hand was terrifying but he let it happen. He knew his mother was scared for him.

**If he could only have died on that summer's night when he had left number four, Privet Drive, for the last time, when the noble ****phoenix**** feather wand had saved him! If he could only have died like Hedwig, so quickly he would not have known it had happened! Or if he could have launched himself in front of a wand to save someone he loved... He envied even his parents' deaths now. This cold-blooded walk to his own destruction would require a different kind of bravery. He felt his fingers trembling slightly and made an effort to control them, although no one could see him; the portraits on the walls were all empty.**

"That is a terrible way to die." Lily said sadly. "Dying can be easy but you have one of the hardest. Having to walk to your own death…" she couldn't comprehend it.

**Slowly, very slowly, he sat up, and as he did so he felt more alive and more aware of his own living body than ever before. Why had he never appreciated what a miracle he was, brain and nerve and pounding heart? It would all be gone... or at least, he would be gone from it. His breath came slow and deep, and his mouth and throat were completely dry, but so were his eyes.**

"You are a miracle." Lucius admitted, "My miracle. You and your brother."

**Dumbledore's betrayal was almost nothing. Of course there had been a bigger plan: Harry had simply been too foolish to see it, he realized that now. He had never questioned his own assumption that Dumbledore wanted him alive. Now he saw that his life span had always been determined by how long it took to eliminate all the Horcruxes. Dumbledore had passed the job of destroying them to him, and obediently he had continued to chip away at ****the bonds**** tying not only Voldemort, but himself, to life! How neat, how elegant, not to waste any more lives, but to give the dangerous task to the boy who had already been marked for slaughter, and whose death would not be a calamity, but another blow ****against**** Voldemort.**

Dumbledore frowned at that. He did not want the boy to have that as his opinion of him. Harry saw this and stopped him, "I understand why, Professor. And you will too in a little while."

Dumbledore nodded, the frown still on his face and no twinkle in his eyes.

**And Dumbledore had known that Harry would not duck out, that he would keep going to the end, even though it was his end, because he had taken trouble to get to know him, hadn't he? Dumbledore knew, as Voldemort knew, that Harry would not let anyone else die for him now that he had discovered it was in his power to stop it. The ****images of**** Fred, Lupin, and Tonks lying dead in the Great Hall forced their way back into his mind's eye, and for a moment he could hardly breathe. Death was impatient...****But Dumbledore had overestimated him. He had failed: The snake survived. One Horcrux remained to bind Voldemort to the earth, even after Harry had been killed. True, that would mean an easier job for somebody. He wondered who would do it... Ron and Hermione would know what needed to be done, of course... That would have been why Dumbledore wanted him to confide in two others... so that if he fulfilled his true destiny a little early, they could carry on...**

Ron shivered, "I hate it when you get all morbid like this, Harry." He admitted.

Harry just shrugged, "Was I wrong?"

Ron sighed, "No and that's why I hate it. Do you know how devastated I would be? How devastated I _was_? Hermione and George had to hold me back!"

"Hold him back from what? What happened?" James asked. It had finally sunk in what was supposed to happen to his son and he grabbed Harry's other hand.

Harry just shook his head. "You'll find out."

**Like rain on a cold window, these thoughts pattered against the hard surface of the incontrovertible truth, which was that he must die. I must die. It must end. ****Ron and Hermione seemed a long way away, in a far-off country; he felt as though he had parted from them long ago. There would be no good-byes and no explanations, he was determined of that.**

Ron glared at him, "You stubborn git! I had just gotten you and you went and almost got yourself killed!"

**This was a journey they could not take together, and the attempts they would make to stop him would waste valuable time. He looked down at the battered gold watch he had received on his seventeenth birthday. Nearly half of the hour allotted by Voldemort for his surrender had elapsed.****He stood up. His heart was leaping against his ribs like a frantic bird. Perhaps it knew it had little time left, perhaps it was determined to fulfill a lifetime's beats before the end. **

**He did not look back as he closed the office door.****The castle was empty. He felt ghostly striding through it alone, as if he had already died. The portrait people were still missing from their frames; the whole place was eerily still, as if all its remaining lifeblood were concentrated in the Great Hall where the dead and the mourners were crammed.**

**Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak over himself and descended through the floors, at last walking down the marble staircase into the entrance hall. Perhaps some tiny part of him hoped to be sensed, to be seen, to be stopped, but the Cloak was, as ever, impenetrable, ****perfect****, and he reached the ****front doors**** easily. ****Then Neville nearly walked into him. He was one half of a pair that was carrying a body in from the grounds. Harry glanced down and felt another dull blow to his stomach: Colon Creevey, though underage, must have sneaked back just as Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had done. He was tiny in death.**

"Draco? You snuck into the fight?" Lucius asked faintly.

Draco blushed, "At first it was to bring Harry to Voldemort." He admitted sheepishly, "But then he saved me and I switched sides."

**"****You know**** what? I can manage him alone, Neville," said Oliver Wood, and he heaved Colin over his shoulder in a fireman's lift and carried him into the Great Hall. ****Neville leaned against the doorframe for a moment and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He looked like an old man. Then he set off on ****the steps**** again into the darkness to recover more bodies.**

"Poor Neville." Harry and Ron said together before smiling at each other.

**Harry took one glance back at the entrance of the Great Hall. People were moving around, trying to comfort each other, drinking, kneeling beside the dead, but he could not see any of the people he loved, no hint of Hermione, Ron, or any of the other Weasleys, no Luna. He felt he would have given all the time remaining to him for just one last look at them; but then, would he ever have the strength to stop looking? It was better like this.**

Lucius squeezed Harry's hand lightly. "You're so strong, Harry." He said softly. "As much as it pains me to hear this…I'm extremely proud of who you grew up to be." James nodded in agreement.

Harry smiled at his parents as he felt his eyes mist over.  
><strong><br>****He moved down the steps and out into the darkness. It was nearly four in the morning, and the deathly stillness of the grounds felt as though they were holding their breath, waiting to see whether he could ****do what**** he must.****Harry moved toward Neville, who was bending over another body. ****"Neville."**

**"Blimey, Harry, you nearly gave me heart failure!"**

**Harry had pulled off the Cloak: The idea had come to him out of nowhere, born out of a desire to make absolutely sure. ****"Where are you going, alone?" Neville asked suspiciously.**

**"It's all part of the plan," said Harry.**

Draco snorted, "You're a terrible liar, Harry."

Said man just shrugged. "It served it's purpose."

**"There's something I've got to do. Listen, Neville,"**

**"Harry!" Neville looked suddenly scared. "Harry, you're not thinking of handing yourself over?"**

"He's sharp, that one is." Sirius said rolling his eyes.

**"No," Harry lied easily. "'Course not... this is something else. But I might be out of sight for a while. You know Voldemort's snake. Neville? He's got a huge snake... Calls it Nagini..."**

**"I've heard, yeah... What about it?"**

**"It's got to be killed. Ron and Hermione know that, but just in case they…" ****The awfulness of that possibility smothered him for a moment, made it impossible to keep talking. But he pulled himself together again: This was crucial, he must be like Dumbledore, keep a cool head, make sure there were backups, others to carry on. Dumbledore had died knowing that three people still knew about the Horcruxes; now Neville would take Harry's place: There would still be three in the secret. ****"Just in case they're…busy…and you get the chance…"**

**"Kill the snake?"**

**"Kill the snake," Harry repeated.**

**"All right, Harry. You're okay, are you?"**

**"I'm fine. Thanks, Neville."**

**But Neville seized his wrist as Harry made to move on. ****"We're all going to keep fighting, Harry. You know that?"**

**"Yeah, I-" ****The suffocating feeling extinguished the end of the sentence; he could not go on. Neville did not seem to find it strange. He patted Harry on the shoulder, released him, and walked away to look for more bodies.**

"My poor boy." Lucius whispered to himself.

**Harry swung the Cloak back over himself and walked on. Someone else was moving not far away, stooping over another prone figure on the ground. He was feet away from him when he realized it was Ron. ****He stopped in his tracks. He was crouching over a girl who was whispering for her mother.****"It's all right," Ron was saying. "It's ok. We're going to get you inside."**

**"But I want to go home," whispered the girl. "I don't want to fight anymore!"**

**"I know," said Ron, and his voice broke. "It's going to be all right." ****Ripples of cold undulated over Harry's skin. He wanted to shout out to the night, he wanted Ron to know that he was there, he wanted him to know where he was going. He wanted to be stopped, to be dragged back, to be sent back home...**

Ron let his own tears flow down his face. He never even knew Harry was there…

**But he was home. Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here...**

Severus gave Harry a small smile. He had him nailed and he knew it.

**Ron was kneeling beside the injured girl now, holding her hand. With a huge effort Harry forced himself on. He thought he saw Ron look around as he passed, and wondered whether he had sensed someone walking nearby, but he did not speak, and he did not look back.**

"You git." Ron said lowly. Harry just sent his husband a small ad smile.

**Hagrid's hut loomed out of the darkness. There were no lights, no sound of Fang scrabbling at the door, his bark booming in welcome. All those visits to Hagrid, and the gleam of the copper kettle on the fire, and rock cakes and giant grubs, and his great bearded face, and Ron vomiting slugs, and Hermione helping him save Norbert...**

There were some raised eyebrows at that but no one said anything.

**He moved on, and now he reached the edge of the forest, and he stopped. ****A swarm of dementors was gliding amongst the trees; he could feel their chill, and he was not sure he would be able to pass safely through it. He had not strength left for a Patronus. He could no longer control his own trembling. It was not, after all, so easy to die. Every second he breathed, the smell of the grass, the cool air on his face, was so precious: To think that people had years and years, time to waste, so much time it dragged, and he was clinging to each second. At the same time he thought that he would not be able to go on, and knew that he must. The long game was ended, the Snitch had been caught, it was time to leave the air...**

"A seeker are you?" Lucius asked gently when Harry nodded James smiled.

"Yes! Quiddatch is the best!"

**The Snitch. His nerveless fingers fumbled for a moment with the pouch at his neck and he pulled it out. ****_I open at the close_. ****Breathing fast and hard, he stared down at it. Now that he wanted time to move as slowly as possible, he seemed to have sped up, and understanding was coming so fast it seemed to have bypassed though. This was the close. This was the moment.****He pressed the golden metal to his lips and whispered, "I am about to die."**

Lucius and James flinched as if they'd been hit.

**The metal shell broke open. He lowered his shaking hand, raised Draco's wand beneath the Cloak, and murmured, "Lumos."**

"How on earth did you wind up with Draco's wand?" James asked curiously.

"Long story actually." Harry chuckled as Draco glared at him. "We were captured and sent to Malfoy manner and Draco was supposed to identify us for Voldemort. He didn't and so after some mayhem I might or might not have disarmed him."

Draco rolled his eyes, "And we didn't know it at the time but because we're twins our wands work well for one another."

There were some nods of acknowledgement as the book continued on.

**The black stone with is jagged crack running down the center sat in the two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand. The triangle and circle representing the Cloak and the stone were still discernible.****And again Harry understood without having to think. It did not matter about bringing them back, for he was about to join them. He was not really fetching them: They were fetching him. ****He closed his eyes and turned the stone over in his hand three times.**

No one had words for what was about to happen.

**He knew it had happened, because he heard slight movements around him that suggested frail bodies shifting their footing on the earthy, twig-strewn ground that marked the outer edge of the forest. He opened his eyes and looked around. ****They were neither ghost nor truly flesh, he could see that. They resembled most closely the Riddle that had escaped from the diary so long ago, and he had been memory made nearly solid. Less substantial than living bodies, but much more than ghosts, they moved toward him. And on each face, there was the same loving smile.**

**Sirius was tall and handsome, and younger by far than Harry had seen him in life. He loped with an easy grace, his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face.**

Remus smiled sadly tears were in his eyes as he thought of his mate.

**Remus was younger too, and much less shabby, and his hair was thicker and darker. He looked happy to be back in this familiar place, a scene of so many adolescent wanderings.**

Sirius frowned, he didn't like thinking of his Remy dead.

**Lily smiled sadly at him, she was wearing exactly what she wore when she died. She was beautiful and lively even in death.**

Severus felt the tears leave cool paths on his face as he thought of his best friend and love dead.

**James was exactly the same height as Harry. He too was wearing the clothes in which he had died, and his hair was untidy and ruffled, and his glasses were a little lopsided, like Mr. Weasley's. He smiled widely at Harry and drew him into a hug.**

Lucius choked back another sob. His Jamie…

**"You've been so brave." ****He could not speak. His eyes feasted on him, and he thought that he would like to stand and look at him forever, and that would be enough.****"You are nearly there," said James. "Very close. We are... so proud of you."**

Lucius continued to cry as he heard this conversation. His love and his son were discussing death as if it were a Quiddatch game.

**"Does it hurt?" ****The childish question had fallen from Harry's lips before he could stop it.**

**"Dying? Not at all," said Sirius. "Quicker and easier than falling asleep."**

**"And he will want it to be quick. He wants it over," said Remus.**

**"I didn't want you to die," Harry said. These words came without his volition. "Any of you. I'm sorry." ****He addressed Remus more than any of them, beseeching him.**

Remus smiled at him sadly, "I doubt I blamed you, Harry."

**"Right after you'd had your son... Remus, I'm sorry…"**

**"I am sorry too," said Remus. "Sorry I will never know him... but he will know why I died and I hope he will understand. I was trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life."**

**A chilly breeze that seemed to emanate from the heart of the forest lifted the hair at Harry's brow. He knew that they would not tell him to go, that it would have to be his decision. ****"You'll stay with me?"**

**"Until the very end," said James.**

**"They won't be able to see you?" asked Harry.**

**"We are part of you," said Sirius. "Invisible to anyone else."**

**Harry looked at his father. He felt closer to him than his mother for some reason.**

"Well, that finally makes sense." Harry said in a light hearted manner, trying to lighten the tension.

**"Stay close to me," he said quietly. ****And he set of. The dementors' chill did not overcome him; he passed through it with his companions, and they acted like Patronuses to him, and together they marched through the old trees that grew closely together, their branches tangled, their roots gnarled and twisted underfoot. Harry clutched the Cloak tightly around him in the darkness, traveling deeper and deeper into the forest, with no idea where exactly Voldemort was, but sure that he would find him. Beside him, making scarcely a sound, walked James, Sirius, Remus, and Lily, and their presence was his courage, and the reason he was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other.**

Lucius finally broke and wrapped his arms around Harry and held him tightly.

**His body and mind felt oddly disconnected now, his limbs working without conscious instruction, as if he were passenger, not driver, in the body he was about to leave. The dead who walked beside him through the forest were much more real to him now than the living back at the castle: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and all the others were the ones who felt like ghosts as he stumbled and slipped toward the end of his life, toward Voldemort...****A thud and a whisper: Some other living creature had stirred close by. Harry stopped under the Cloak, peering around, listening, and his mother and father, Remus and Sirius stopped too.**

**"Someone there," came a rough whisper close at hand. **

**"He's got an Invisibility Cloak. Could it be-?"**

**Two figures emerged from behind a nearby tree: Their wands flared, and Harry saw Yaxley and Dolohov peering into the darkness, directly at the place Harry, his mother and father and Sirius and Remus stood. Apparently they could not see anything.**

No one had anything to say. This was hard enough for the small family as it was.

**"Definitely heard something," said Yaxley. "Animal, d'you reckon?"**

**"That head case Hagrid kept a whole bunch of stuff in here," said Dolohov, glancing over his shoulder.****Yaxley looked down at his watch.****"Time's nearly up. Potter's had his hour. He's not coming."**

**"Better go back," said Yaxley. "Find out what the plan is now." ****He and Dolohov turned and walked deeper into the forest. Harry followed them, knowing that they would lead him exactly where he wanted to go. He glanced sideways, and his father smiled at him, and his mother nodded encouragement.**

The silence in the room was defeaning as they listened to what they thought were Harry's last moments.

**They had traveled on mere minutes when Harry saw light ahead, and Yaxley and Dolohov stepped out into a clearing that Harry knew had been the place where the monstrous Aragog had once lived. The remnants of his vast web were there still, but the Death Eaters had driven out the swarms of descendants he had spawned, to fight for their cause.**

"I'm not even going to ask." Sirius said as he thought about who Aragog was.

**A fire burned in the middle of the clearing, and its flickering light fell over a crowd of completely silent, watchful Death Eaters. Some of them were still masked and hooded; others showed their faces. Two giants sat on the outskirts of the group, casting massive shadows over the scene, their faces cruel, rough-hewn like rock. Harry saw Fenrir, skulking, chewing his long nails; the great blond Rowle was dabbing at his bleeding lip. He saw Lucius Malfoy, who looked defeated and terrified, and Narcissa, whose eyes were sunken and full of apprehension.**

Lucius froze, "Oh Merlin. I'm there…I-I'm going to have to-to…" Harry frowned and squeezed his mother's hand.

**Every eye was fixed upon Voldemort, who stood with his head bowed, and his white hands folded over the Elder Wand in front of him. He might have been praying, or else counting silently in his mind, and Harry, standing still on the edge of the scene, though absurdly of a child counting in a game of hide-and-seek.**

** Behind his head, still swirling and coiling, the great snake Nagini floated in her glittering, charmed cage, like a monstrous halo.****When Dolohov and Yaxley rejoined the circle, Voldemort looked up.**

**"No sign of him, my Lord," said Dolohov.**

**Voldemort's expression did not change. The red eyes seemed to burn in the firelight. Slowly he drew the Elder Wand between his long fingers.**

**"My Lord." ****Bellatrix had spoken: She sat closest to Voldemort, disheveled, her face a little bloody but otherwise unharmed.****Voldemort raised his hand to silence her, and she did not speak another word, but eyed him in worshipful fascination.**

**"I thought he would come," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice, his eyes on the leaping flames. "I expected him to come."**

**Nobody spoke. They seemed as scared as Harry, whose heart was now throwing itself against his ribs as though determined to escape the body he was about to cast aside. His hands were sweating as he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak and stuffed it beneath his robes, with his wand. He did not want to be tempted to fight. ****"I was, it seems... mistaken," said Voldemort.**

**"You weren't."**

Everyone's breathing in the room seemed to stop with those few simple words.

**Harry said it as loudly as he could, with all the force he could muster: He did not want to sound afraid. The Resurrection Stone slipped from between his numb fingers, and out of the corner of his eyes he saw his parents, Sirius, and Remus vanish as he stepped forward into the firelight. At that moment he felt that nobody mattered but Voldemort. It was just the two of them.****The illusion was gone as soon as it had come. The giants roared as the Death Eaters rose together, and there were many cries, gasps, even laughter. **

**Voldemort had frozen where he stood, but his red eyes had found Harry, and he stared as Harry moved toward him, with nothing but the fire between them.****Then a voice yelled: "HARRY! NO!"**

**He turned: Hagrid was bound and trussed, tied to a tree nearby. His massive body shook the branches overhead as he struggled, desperate.****"NO! NO! HARRY, WHAT'RE YEH-?"**

"He's not going to make this any easier." Remus said softly shaking his head.

**"QUIET!" shouted Rowle, and with a flick of his wand, Hagrid was silenced. **

**Bellatrix, who had leapt to her feet, was looking eagerly from Voldemort to Harry, her breast heaving. The only things that moved were the flames and the snake, coiling and uncoiling in the glittering cage behind Voldemort's head.****Harry could feel his wand against his chest, but he made no attempt to draw it. He knew that the snake was too well protected, knew that if he managed to point the wand at Nagini, fifty curses would hit him first. And still, Voldemort and Harry looked at each other, and now Voldemort tilted his head a little to the side, considering the boy standing before him, and a singularly mirthless smile curled the lipless mouth.****"Harry Potter," he said very softly. His voice might have been part of the spitting fire. "The Boy Who Lived."**

"He's not going to taunt you is he?" Lily asked nervously. "Because it wouldn't be fair to you…I mean you worked up all of that courage just to get down there…"

**None of the Death Eaters moved. They were waiting: Everything was waiting. Hagrid was struggling, and Bellatrix was panting, and Harry thought inexplicably of Ron, and his blazing look, and the feel of his lips on his.**

Ron felt tears prickling in his eyes. He closed his eyes and held them closed. He couldn't stand the thought of what his husband had gone through.

**Voldemort had raised his wand. His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded. Harry looked back into the red eyes, and wanted it to happen now, quickly, while he could still stand, before he lost control, before he betrayed fear.**

**He saw the mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone.**

Lucius sobbed as he clung to Harry and James cried as he held his son's hand reverently.

"Have to have all the attention don't you, Scar Head?" Draco asked teasingly, trying to defuse the tension.

Harry rolled his eyes, "It's what I do, Dray."

No one seemed to understand the exchange but it didn't seem to matter they just wanted to hear the next chapter.


End file.
